Quality of Working Life - Full Report - January 2016

THE QUALITY OF
WORKING LIFE.
Exploring managers wellbeing,
motivation and productivity.
Professor Les Worrall, Professor Cary Cooper, Dr Mire Kerrin, Analise La-Band,
Anna Rosselli and Patrick Woodman
January 2016
FOREWORD
CONTENTS
Forewords
Introduction
Key findings
1. A changing organisational context
5
7
2. The impact of the changing context for organisations and managers

Case Study: Creating a culture shift Leyla Okhai, Imperial College London
Case Study: Headhunters with passion for the gym Katy Garnell, Loopdynamic
10
3. Management styles, line management challenges and engagement

Case Study: Employee engagement is key Diane Foster, Flamingo
16
4. Managers working hours in a digital era

Case Study: Building a caring company Evan Davidge, Arup
21
5. Motivation and wellbeing

Case Study: How to be successful in times of great change John Rawling, Sunderland City Council
28
Conclusions and Recommendations
32
Appendices
34
Ann Francke MBA CMgr CCMI FIC
Chief Executive, CMI
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was carried out by
Professor Cary Cooper and Professor
Les Worrall. They were supported
by Lysbeth Plas, Petra Wilton and
Patrick Woodman at the Chartered
Management Institute. The report
was written by Analise La-Band, Anna
Rosselli and Dr Mire Kerrin at Work
Psychology Group supported by
Patrick Woodman.
We would like to thank the 1,574
CMI members who took part in the
comprehensive survey. In particular we
want to thank those who gave us their
time and insights during the invaluable
interviews that served as background
for the case studies:
Evan Davidge
Head of Reward, Arup
Diane Foster
HR Director, Flamingo
Katy Garnell
HR and Operations Manager,
Loopdynamic
Leyla Okhai
Head of Equality, Diversity and
Inclusion Imperial College London
John Rawling
Deputy Director of Human
Resources and Organisational
Development, Sunderland City
Council
Good, skilled
managers know
that they need to
switch off and allow
their employees to
do the same.
The long-hours culture familiar to

most managers has now given way
to the always-on culture. Connected
devices, like smartphones, are driving
more and more managers to regularly
check their emails out of hours.
According to the 1,574 managers
we surveyed for our latest Quality of
Working Life report, theyre working,
on average, an extra 60 minutes every
day on top of their contracted hours.
In total this equals 29 days a year,
which effectively cancels out the
typical holiday entitlement of 28 days.
This always-on culture is having a
deleterious effect on the health of
managers. Many report suffering
increased stress and associated
problems, such as persistent
headaches and insomnia. The impact
on managers work is great: the
longer the hours they put in, the less
productive they say they become. This
should be a big flashing warning light
for employers.
Good, skilled managers know that

they need to switch off and allow their
employees to do the same. The report
highlights the difference that good
management makes to wellbeing,
to engagement and ultimately to
performance. The conclusion is
inescapable: helping managers
to strike the necessary work/life
balance must be a priority for every
organisation facing up to the challenge
of improving productivity.
January 2016
Work Psychology Group (WPG) is a well-established and highly respected international research-led
consulting practice, with offices in the UK and in Australia. Led by Professor Fiona Patterson and
Dr Mire Kerrin, WPG engages with organisations in the UK and internationally across all sectors
at a strategic level to translate the very latest research into innovative, effective and sustainable
solutions. WPGs principal areas of activity are services relating to evaluation, organisational
development and change, and bespoke selection and assessment. WPGs senior and consultant
psychologists are uniquely skilled in these areas and are committed to working in partnership with
clients to ensure that their expertise benefits the needs of their client organisation.
2
KEY FINDINGS
In spite of it all, managers
are overall content with
their jobs
The new normal: longer

hours, digital presenteeism
and stress
INTRODUCTION
CMIs research on The Quality
of Working Life explores the
connections between managers
wellbeing, their motivation and
productivity.
Started in 1997, it has tracked how
changes in the business environment
affect employees and has
demonstrated that managers have
a pivotal role to play in supporting
employee engagement, job satisfaction
and wellbeing.
The last report in the series was
published in 2012, when the impact of
a challenging economic climate was
evident in high levels of organisational
restructuring and increased strain on
managers. With the economy having
recovered slowly in the years since,
The Quality of Working Life 2016 looks
at whats changed.
Based on a survey of 1,574 managers,
the results provide insights into
the impact of working hours and
management style on the productivity
challenge faced by the UK. With long
hours identified as a major factor

in stress and health problems, the
2016 report also highlights how
our increasingly digital environment
could be creating a new form of
presenteeism.
The report includes detailed analysis
of the survey results as well as
case studies from employers who
have committed to improving
employee wellbeing, looking at
how they engaged managers in
changing cultures and achieving
improvements. It concludes with our
recommendations for action.
The Quality of Working Life is evidence
of the impact that management and
leadership has on wellbeing. The
insights and lessons it offers should
help managers understand what
they can do to improve the quality of
working life in their organisations.
Methodology and
Respondents
This report is based on an online selfreport survey of 1,574 managers across
the UK, comprising a wide range of roles
and levels of seniority. The majority of the
respondents represented private sector
organisations (45%) and organisations
employing over 1,000 people. There was
an increase in female respondents (60%
of respondents were male and 40%
female, compared to 70% and 30%
in the 2012 survey). The results were
weighted to provide better comparability
with the 2012 and 2007 surveys.
A more detailed description of the
methodology and the profile of the
current surveys respondents can be
found in the Appendices.
Extra working hours cancel out

annual leave entitlement
managers contracted working hours
have risen by one hour daily compared
to 2012, which is equivalent to an
additional 29 days extra each year.
Thats more than a typical annual leave
entitlement of 20 days plus eight bank
holidays. Whats more, 92% of
managers work longer than their
contracted hours.
Long hours increase stress 54%

say that working hours are having a
negative effect on their stress levels,
although thats fewer than in 2012
(59%). Stress was more than three
times as common among those
working long hours: 20% of those
working over three hours a day extra
said they are often stressed, compared
to only 6% of those working no
additional hours.
Its hard to switch off 61% of

managers say that technology has
made it difficult to switch off from work.
Around one in five managers say they
now check their email all the time
outside of working hours; over half
(54%) check frequently.
Workload and health managers

perceive their workload and the
resulting long working hours to have a
negative impact on their health.
Many managers reported suffering
from various health issues in the last
three months. Insomnia and muscular
aches topped the list reported by
57% of managers, followed complaints
such as headaches and constant
irritability.
Time to turn off? Overall, 39% of

managers agree that their employer
should restrict out-of-hours email
access including 43% of those who
say they check email all the time.
Job satisfaction has improved

67% of managers say that overall
theyre satisfied with their jobs,
substantially more than in 2012 (55%)
or even 2007 (62%).
Why could this be? An increased
feel good factor reflects the return of
growth: 39% of managers report that
their organisation is growing, up from
34% in 2012. But the evidence shows
that management and business culture
are key. 79% of managers feel that
their line manager trusts them. Around
three quarters (76%) say theyre proud
to work for their employer, higher than
in 2012 (64%). The same number
believe in the values of their organisation
and 61% feel fairly treated by their
employer, up from 54%.
High connectivity, high stress

those who struggle to switch off from
work and checking emails report lower
personal productivity and job
satisfaction levels, and they experience
more frequent stress. 68% of those
who rate themselves as less than 70%
productive say technology has made it
hard to switch off from work, compared
to 56% of those who are more than
90% productive.
The questionnaire was thoroughly

reviewed to reflect the changing world
of work, although significant tracking
elements were retained to allow
comparison over time. Comparisons
to 2012 are presented where relevant
throughout the report. Note that when
we say 2015 we refer to the current
research, which was conducted in the
summer of 2015.
5
1. A
CHANGING ORGANISATIONAL
CONTEXT
Change is not as
good as rest
Quality of management
determines quality of
working life
Change risks undermining rising

job satisfaction most managers
report that work has become more
intense as a result of changes, with 78%
reporting that the volume of work has
increased and 67% that its pace has
increased. 59% say that employee
morale has dropped and 49% that levels
of psychological wellbeing have fallen.
Line managers have a critical role to

play in driving employee engagement,
motivation and wellbeing.
Change is the norm but is failing to

deliver benefits 97% of managers
report that their organisation went
through some form of change in the
last 12 months, up from 92% in 2012.
Yet only 27% of managers say
productivity has increased as a result
of change, just 20% report that
decision-making has become faster
and only 36% say that financial results
have improved.
Confidence in senior leaders is low
only 28% of managers feel that
senior managers in their organisation
are managing change well. Thats even
lower than the previous low point
recorded in 2012 (30%). Overall, 52%
of managers say they have trust and
confidence in senior managers. Thats
better than in 2012 but still a lower level
than immediate line managers (62%).
The impact on absence 26% of
managers say that poorly managed
change initiatives have resulted in
increased absence levels, up from
23% in 2012.
Managers need to drive

engagement the five biggest drivers
of engagement levels are a sense of
achievement from work; feeling part of
a team; the line manager relationship;
the ability to decide how to get jobs
done; and prospects for career
advancement. Managers have a role to
play in all of these.
Management style more open,
empowering management styles are
connected to lower levels of stress,
higher job satisfaction and greater
personal productivity than more
command and control styles. The
worst generate up to four times more
stress than the best: as many as 28%
of those whose line managers are
secretive or suspicious in style report
that they often feel stressed
compared to just 7% of those whose
managers are empowering.
Increased job satisfaction the
best management styles drive job
satisfaction levels up to 2.5 times
higher than the worst. Where innovative,
entrepreneurial and empowering
management styles are found, more
than 84% of managers are satisfied
with their jobs. Where line managers
are secretive and suspicious, fewer
than 38% are satisfied.
Personal productivity managers

report being twice as productive where
the best management styles prevail.
Where managers are innovative, 43%
of managers rate their personal
productivity as 90% or better. Where
managers are secretive or suspicious,
only 20% score highly for personal
productivity.
Organisational growth and decline
where organisations are growing,
managers tend to be accessible,
empowering and trusting. Declining
firms are relatively more likely to have
secretive, risk-averse and authoritarian
managers.
A key driver for the survey in 2015 was

to explore the changing organisational
context, as the UK economy continues
to recover from the recession which
contributed to dismal findings in 2012.
Key Findings: There is a trend
towards recovery, both in terms
of organisations economic health
and the working environment.
There were fewer declining and
more growing organisations. The
public sector is still the sector
where growth is lowest and decline
is most prevalent.
Organisational change is even
more common than before.
Managers still report that it is
being led poorly, resulting in a
failure to deliver organisational
benefits and in negative impacts
on employees.
2012
42
2015
40%
32
30
30%
31
28
25
20%
10%
4
0%
Declining
rapidly
Declining
Stable
Growing
Growing
rapidly
Figure 1: 2012/2015 comparison of reported organisational growth and decline
Following the decline in 2012, there

has been a 5% increase in those
organisations growing or rapidly growing
(31% and 8% respectively) in 2015.
Similar to 2012 trends, growth was
more common in private sector
organisations. Unsurprisingly, given
the political context, there was less
evidence of growth in the public sector.
In fact, nearly half of public sector
organisations (49%) and almost a
fifth of private sector organisations
(17%) are still in a state of decline.
50%
We also asked managers whether

their wider operating environment
was growing or declining. The
patterns largely reflect those of
the organisational context: 37% of
managers reported growth or rapid
growth in their business operating
environment, while 30% reported
decline or rapid decline.
The Experience of
Organisational Change
Organisational change has long been
recognised as necessary to maintain a
competitive edge. The Quality of Working
Life series has tracked these changes
and what impact they have had.
No fewer than 97% of managers
reported experiencing at least one
form of organisational change, up even
from the levels recorded in 2007 and
2012. As Figure 2 shows, the most
common forms were cost reduction
programmes, the implementation of
new technology or systems, and
culture change programmes.
Although cost has remained paramount,
the results also offer some support for
the notion of a climate of recovery. The
implementation of new technology was
identified by 60% of managers, 42% of
managers reported the introduction of
new products or services and 19%
reported engagement in investment
programmes by their organisation.
Redundancies were less common in
2015 than previously.1
It is not surprising that, considering
the trend towards growth and new
forms of organisational change, a
small increase in culture change
programmes is evident (a 4% increase
from 2012). As organisations adapt
to new challenges in a slightly less
austere financial environment,
cultural change could offer a way of
embedding new approaches and
values that will provide a foundation
for future success.
Different priorities emerge between

key economic sectors too. As in 2012,
change was most prevalent in the
public sector. Cost reduction and
organisational restructuring remain
the most common forms of change
activity 41-89% of respondents and
71-86% of respondents across all
sectors experienced these forms of
change respectively. Similarly to the
not-for-profit sector, a key focus in the
private sector was investment in the
implementation of new technology
and introducing new products and
services, whilst a cost reduction
approach remains present in the
public sector (Table 2).
When organisational change activity

is split by growth or decline (Table 1),
organisational restructuring was one
of the most prevalent activities across
all organisations. This suggests
organisations are still adjusting in order to
find the most efficient ways to operate.
Cost reduction was most common
in declining and rapidly declining
organisations (91%), whilst investment
in new technology or systems and
the introduction of new products or
services was more typical of rapidly
growing organisations. As may be
expected, those experiencing growth
are investing, whilst those experiencing
decline are focused on cost reduction.
2015
82
Implementation of new
technology/systems
Declining
Rapidly
Declining
Stable
Growing
Growing
Growing
Rapidly
Organisational restructuring
85
88
72
71
76
Cost reduction programmes
91
91
72
53
43
Implementation of new
technology/systems
53
61
57
60
71
Culture change programmes
72
64
51
50
48
Changed employees terms

and conditions
65
56
40
29
40
Introduction of new products/

services
24
30
37
51
67
Redundancy voluntary
61
61
35
22
13
Different working patterns
45
40
27
29
33
Increased use of temporary

/agency staff
42
43
28
21
41
Redundancy compulsory
57
42
25
20
17
Outsourcing
41
29
19
17
26
Delayering
47
40
19
12
Investment programmes
13
28
42
Merger/acquisition
19
15
16
23
23
Offshoring
14
12
None of these
Table 1: Organisational change activity by organisational growth/decline

(Percentage agreement, with darker shades representing higher agreement.)
69
Cost reduction programmes

60
55
Culture change programmes
51
Introduction of new
products/services
42
Changed employees terms

and conditions
41
Public Sector
Private Sector
Not-for-Profit /
Charity Sector
Cost Reduction
Programmes
Organisational Restructuring
Cost Reduction
Programmes
Cost Reduction
Programmes
Culture Change
Programmes
Implementation of New
Technology / Systems
Introduction of
New Products / Services
Culture Change
Programmes
Redundancy Voluntary
Culture Change
Programmes
Introduction of
New Products / Services
49
37
Redundancy voluntary
53
32
Different working patterns

Increased use of
temporary/agency staff
31
24
28
Redundancy compulsory
42
22
24
Outsourcing
22
Delayering
29
Investment programmes
19
Merger/acquisition
19
19
Table 2: Comparison of top five organisational change activities across sectors in 2015
7
6
Offshoring
None of these
2012
Type of Organisational Change
3
8
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Figure 2: Experience of organisational change in 2015
MIs latest Future Forecast report (December 2015) has more on managers expectations about cost-cutting and redundancies in
C
2016. www.managers.org.uk/futureforecast
2. T
HE IMPACT OF THE CHANGING
CONTEXT FOR ORGANISATIONS
AND MANAGERS
Key Findings: Many managers

report that change is having
negative effects on financial
performance, turnover and
absenteeism. Only 27% of
managers say productivity has
increased as a result of change,
just 20% report that decision
making has become faster and
only 36% say that financial results
have improved.
Across all surveys conducted in
The Quality of Working Life series
since 1997, it has been clear that
organisational change has a significant
impact on managers experiences at
work.
We asked managers who had
experienced change at work for
their views on its impact on their
organisation as a whole (Figure 3).
Generally managers perceptions
of the impact of change were not
favourable, as has been the trend
in previous surveys. However, there
were some minor improvements in the
results compared to 2012.
50% of managers did not think
decision-making was any faster (54%
in 2012) and only 27% of managers
agreed that productivity had increased
in 2015 (25% in 2012).
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Decision-making is faster
Managers Perceptions of
Senior Management
Neither disagree or agree
10
40
Employee partcipation has increased
Flexibility has increased
Productivity has increased
Customer service has improved
27
27
21
Accountability has increased
Financial results have improved
21
Key skills and experience have been lost
17
Levels of absence have increased
6
29
4
Strongly agree
17
31
29
36
27
41
25
41
28
30
38
43
Employee turnover has increased
The level of industrial action/strikes

has increased
30
30
Agree
23
20
30
25
19
4
7
32
14
36
38
22
8
4
71
Figure 3: Impact of organisational change on organisations
Worryingly, there was an increase

in managers reporting that absence
levels had increased (up from 23% in
2012 to 26%). It is concerning that a
rising trend for absenteeism exists in
what appears to be a healthier climate.
This may be linked to working hours
and the volume and pace of work, all of
Attitudes towards senior management

can be differentiated by business
size. Those in microbusinesses (1-10
employees) report higher levels of trust
and confidence in senior management
(86%) than those in larger businesses.
Trust was lowest in organisations
with more than 500 employees;
organisations with both 501-1,000
employees and over 1,000 employees
showed comparable levels (45% and
46% respectively).
Managers in 2015 are more favourable

toward senior management compared
to previous years (Figure 4). Given
the increased levels of organisational
change, it is striking that the survey
records a decline in the perceived
effectiveness of senior leaders in
managing change. Only 28% say
change is managed well by senior
leaders, down from 30% in 2012,
which marked a low point. This
continued decline highlights an area
for attention. Senior management need
to re-focus on involving managers
in organisational change, allowing
them to influence its direction and
implementation.
Reflecting patterns emerging in 2012,

perceptions of senior management
were more favourable in the charity/
not-for-profit and private sectors when
compared with the public sector. This
may have been unsurprising in 2012
considering the governments austerity
measures. However in the current
context, when such measures are
still apparent in the public sector, it is
interesting to note that these managers
reported the largest improvement
in trust and confidence in senior
management (up from 30% in 2012
to 42% in 2015).
Although disappointing, the low trust

and confidence overall could be a
reflection of the perception that senior
managers are responsible for poor
management of change. If there is little
faith that the process will be managed
well, it is unlikely that organisations will
gain the necessary support to move
ahead effectively even where change
is associated with investment.
A continued feeling that change is
not managed well in organisations
suggests senior managers need to be
more innovative in identifying different
approaches for achieving change that
will enable them to sustain recovery
and growth. Allowing managers
more scope in delivering change
may improve perceptions of change
management, and further improve
feelings of empowerment and trust.
39
29
37
Key Findings: In 2015, perceptions

of senior management were
slightly improved. Trust and
confidence in senior management
has increased by 9% since
2012, but remains relatively low.
However, only 28% of managers
feel that senior managers in their
organisation are managing change
well. Thats even lower than the
previous low point recorded in
2012 (30%).
which are perceived to be increasing.
In other ways however, managers

views on senior leaders show some
improvement.
More managers feel that senior
managers have trust and confidence
in them (up from 62% in 2012 to
77% in 2015).
52% of managers reflected positively
on their trust and confidence in their
organisations senior managers (an
increase of 9%). It is still concerning
that only around half of managers
feel this way.
Strongly disagree
Disagree
I believe that senior managers have

trust and confidence in me
2 8
I feel empowered to make decisions
I have trust and confidence in

our senior managers
209
17
19
Agree
14
52
17
45
20
I think senior management manage

change well in our organisation
13
35
25
I think senior managers are out of touch

with my organisation
13
37
19
Strongly agree
25
16
39
24
24
13
4
7
Figure 4: Perceptions of senior management in 2015
Only just over a third (36%) agreed that

organisational change has resulted
in improved financial results.2 More
managers thought employee turnover
had increased (39% in 2012).
esults are not directly comparable over time: the 2012 survey referred to improvement in profitability and the 2015 survey referred to
R
improvement in financial results. This was changed to make the question more relevant to non-profit-seeking organisations.
10
11
CASE STUDY
CREATING A CULTURE SHIFT

Leyla Okhai Head of Equality,
Diversity and Inclusion at Imperial College London
If people are happy and positive in the workplace youre going to
see innovation and great results. Why wouldnt you want that?
Leyla joined Imperials Organisation Development department
in 2012 initially to support disabled members in the
8,000-strong workforce. At the time the College was starting
to increase health and wellbeing awareness among staff.
The aim was to change the culture from the rather closed
community that characterises traditional academia to a more
open culture in which there is space to talk about issues
that might stand in the way of healthy and happy personnel
that are satisfied in their job. The first step was to start the
conversation with staff making them comfortable talking
about things that were affecting them.
Three years on Leyla says the change is striking: A culture
shift has started to take place, driven by the message sent out
by the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team to managers and
leaders: staff health, happiness and job satisfaction matter.
Its empowering for staff to know they have a support network
to fall back on, and they can play an active role in encouraging
colleagues to use it. Leyla: Culture change doesnt happen
overnight. But the fact that the senior leadership team has
recognised the importance of it has caused a shift.
Leyla trained as a Mental Health First Aid instructor in May
2013 and delivered pilot training in June and July of that year.
This resulted in a great interest and appetite to discuss mental
wellbeing further. It also led to her putting together an action
plan for the Time to Change Pledge to be signed. The pledge
was signed by the Colleges Vice-Provost of Education at
the time, who spoke openly about her familys experiences
The Personal Impact of

Organisational Change
Key Findings: Managers believe
that morale and sense of job
security are still the areas where
organisational change has the
most impact on employees.
The majority of managers felt
the volume and pace of work
had increased although their
job satisfaction has improved.
Line managers have a critical
role to play in driving employee
engagement, motivation and
wellbeing. The most worrying
finding is the large proportion of
managers who are wary about
taking time off due to illness.
12
with mental ill health. Her leadership encouraged others

break down the stigma and continue the conversation. Now
that senior leaders have openly said that mental health is an
important issue, others have bought into it. Its created a shift
in thinking.
There are now 150 mental health first aiders who give advice
and support to colleagues. They are trained on an ongoing
basis to talk to people who are experiencing stress or mental
ill health in the workplace they signpost, guide and advise.
Leyla has also set up Conversation Cafs, where staff come
together to listen to a colleagues mental health journey, and set
up a high level mental health steering group to drive awareness
and uptake of the support available to academic staff.
Imperial also has a wide range of systems and initiatives in
place to promote staff wellbeing. There are a lot of examples,
from an in-house occupational health team to healthy living
courses that include nutritional and weight loss advice. We
also have a helpline for managers, maternity and paternity
workshops and an in-house mediation service to resolve
conflicts before they reach a crisis point. Imperial also host
a number of events, such as National Stress Awareness Day,
Mental Health Awareness Day and an ongoing Reclaim Your
Lunch Break campaign.
Staff feedback on the initiatives has been very positive. Courses
are always oversubscribed; interest in becoming a volunteer
is increasing. The latest staff survey showed that 80% of staff
are proud to work for Imperial. Leyla is confident that a positive
shift in attitudes toward health and wellbeing is occurring
and that it is here to stay.
The focus of The Quality of Working Life

research is to understand the impact
of changing work environments on
employees. How does change impact
on a managers job satisfaction and
working life?
As in previous surveys, we asked
managers who had experienced some
form of organisational change about
the perceived impact on employees
(Figure 5). In 2015 the effect of change
was largely comparable to 2012,
with minimal improvements in some
areas. Organisational change is still
considered to have the most significant
effect on morale, sense of job security
and motivation. These negative feelings
are likely to be linked to the fact that
less than a third of managers believe
that senior managers are able to

manage change well.
Managers in 2015 felt that the volume
and pace of work had increased as
a result of organisational change.
Although based only on managers
perceptions of work rather than
an objective measure, it is still an
important finding when we consider
the implications for managers
wellbeing: a sense of needing to
work harder and faster has direct
consequences for the experience of
stress.
These figures are relatively comparable

to 2012, highlighting that despite
a more positive economic outlook
where both voluntary and compulsory
redundancy has reduced (from 53%
and 42% respectively to 37% and
28%), managers still feel the demands
on them are high. The impact of
change on managers views about
the volume and pace of work may
explain their longer working hours
and perhaps the sense of needing to
remain connected to work via email
(see Section 4).
Job Satisfaction
and Engagement
So, organisational change continues to
impact on how managers are feeling
in their daily working lives, but has it
influenced how they feel about their
jobs in general? On the whole, the latest
results show managers reflecting slightly
more positively on their organisations,
including a 12 percentage point increase
in job satisfaction.
There were small increases in a number
of key areas regarding managers
views on their workplace and levels of
engagement (Figure 6), which bodes
well for continued progress in an
improving economic climate.
Overall job satisfaction improved
from 55% in 2012 to 67% in 2015,
representing an improvement on
the previous period. Encouragingly,
it also exceeds satisfaction levels
reported before the financial crisis
in 2007 (62%).
The percentage of managers who
thought that their organisation was
a good employer in 2015 (69%)
returned to the same proportion as
in 2007 (69%) following a period of
decline in 2012 (64%).
The percentage of managers
who felt fairly treated by their
organisation increased to 62% from
54% in 2012.
Over 75% of managers felt proud
to work for their organisation an
improvement on 2012 (64%) and
2007 (68%).
The results suggest that change has
not negatively influenced managers
feelings towards their employers,
3
Strongly decreased
Decreased
Morale
Neither decreased nor increased
Increased
Strongly increased
1410
45
22
Sense of job security
15
38
30
14 2
Motivation
10
43
26
19
37
12 1
35
14
Psychological wellbeing
Loyalty to the organisation
42
9
The degree of role autonomy
40
4
20
The extent of performance

management
47
2 11
27
41
2 8
The pace of work
15
The volume of work

12
Working hours
17
39
23
54
17
13
58
20
51
39
Figure 5: The impact of organisational change on employees
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Agree
I feel proud to work for my organisation
2 7
15
45
I am very clear about my role
3 11
13
47
I feel motivated to do my best for

my organisation
3 10
16
My organisation is a good employer
2 10
18
15
14
4 13
17
Overall, I am satisfied with my job
I have a strong sense of attachment

to my organisation
My organisation has a clear sense
of direction
18
16
I feel fairly treated by my organisation
15
19
My organisation helps me balance

my home and work commitments
If I could find another job,I would leave
9
15
I am wary about taking time off work

when I am ill
21
29
14
30
Strongly agree
31
27
47
25
52
17
48
19
39
27
45
17
45
23
17
36
25
20
14
30
12
11
13
Figure 6: Managers feelings about their organisation
despite their negative opinions on

change management. It is positive
that areas such as job satisfaction,
perceived fairness and a sense of
pride have been restored or exceed
pre-financial crisis levels. Slightly fewer
managers reported that they would
leave their organisation if they could
find another job and slightly more
indicated that they wouldnt. These
changes suggest engagement has
improved and may not be the source
of rising absenteeism, which could
instead be due to the changing nature
he 2012 survey statement referred to Employees being wary of taking time off, whilst the
T
2015 survey statement referred to I feel wary.
of work and longer hours worked.

Whilst the improvement in managers
job satisfaction is welcome it is still
disappointing to find that 43% of
managers feel wary about taking time
off for illness.3 This figure represents
the largest element of discontent
across measures of satisfaction and
engagement. The result is more
pronounced for women: almost 10%
more feel this way compared with
men 48% and 40% respectively. This
may require further investigation by
13
organisations. Women may be more

reluctant to take time off for fear of other
negative outcomes (e.g. limited career
progression) rather than concerns
over work-life balance. In this area their
attitudes are more similar to those of
men: half of female managers agreed
that their organisation helped them to
balance home and work commitments,
similar to the figure for men (47%).
The extent to which managers felt
motivated to do their best for their
organisation was similar to 2012. Whilst
managers were more engaged with
their organisations in 2015, creating
a sense of motivation still presents
a challenge to organisations. This
shouldnt be overlooked as motivation
is a pre-requisite for productivity,
influencing future stability and growth.
Similarly, organisations should consider
managers concerns regarding taking
time off and the impact of this on their
sense of satisfaction at work and their
productivity if working during a period of
poor health.
Job Satisfaction
and Seniority
Managers perceptions of their
organisation differed by levels of
seniority: Directors and above
have a very different experience of
organisational life. Figure 7 shows
that managers working at these more
senior levels have far more positive
perceptions of their organisations
compared with those at lower levels.
These patterns are also apparent in
relation to experiences of change.
Directors and above perceive the
impact of change to have been more
positive in relation to motivation,
morale, job security and sense of
psychological wellbeing than other
levels. They are also less likely to
acknowledge the downside of change
(e.g. impact on absenteeism).
Such differences lead to questions
around senior managers sensitivity to
the effects of change on the workforce.
Productivity
14
Levels of productivity were found

to relate to wellbeing outcomes.
The largest proportion of managers
reporting no stress at all over the
previous three months were those
who reported their productivity as
being at 90-99% (35% of managers).
Perhaps not unexpectedly, managers
experiencing stress most often
(27%) were those who reported their
productivity as being below 70%.
I feel proud to work

for my organisation
Overall, I am satisfied
with my job
0.80
If I could find another

job,I would leave
0.60
0.40
I believe in my
organisations values
My organisation is
a good employer
0.20
0.00
-0.20
I feel motivated to do my best

for my organisation
My organisation has
a clear sense of direction
-0.40
My organisation helps
me balance my home
and work commitments
I am wary about taking time

off work when I am ill
I feel fairly treated

by my organisation
Although we cannot determine

the cause and effect, it would be
reasonable to suggest that a feeling
of reduced productivity could cause
feelings of stress and vice versa.
This provides further reason for
organisations to manage stress in the
workplace if the productivity gap is to
be closed.
I am very clear
about my role
Katy Garnell HR and Operations Manager, Loopdynamic

Healthy body; healthy mind. Exercise produces endorphins, reduces stress
and improves energy. And thats the sort of thing we want our guys to have in
the fast-paced and high-pressured environment they work in.
Loopdynamic is a small, European technology headhunting business in London
with around 30 employees. Its young and its fast-paced. Employees have daily
KPIs that need to be met and they are expected to deliver.
Katy: Like other recruitment businesses, were no different in that respect. But
we know that that the traditional way of working everyone in their own little pods
talking on the phone without interacting doesnt work.
Because the company is small, employee health and wellbeing is easy to

shape into what its people want. Where some companies would encourage its
employees to move around the office, Loopdynamic have taken it to the next level
strongly emphasising physical fitness both within and outside the sales floor.
Figure 7: Feelings about the organisation compared by levels of management
We asked managers how productive

they had felt in their job over the last
three months. As shown in Figure 8, and
15
12were
in a similar pattern to 2012, there
comparable proportions of managers
reporting 100% productivity and those
reporting less than
19 70% productivity. 24
HEADHUNTERS WITH A PASSION

FOR THE GYM
So Loopdynamic are doing things differently. From the very beginning in 2011
the company has focused on integrating fitness and wellbeing in the company
strategy. This is how it became part of the DNA of the business.
I have a strong sense of

attachment to my organisation
Concern over productivity has plagued

organisations for a number of years,
with evidence showing that the UK
lags behind many of its competitors
making the productivity challenge
a particular focus for policy-makers in
2016. With further insight in this area,
organisations can begin to identify
means for improving productivity and
ultimately organisational performance.
CASE STUDY
Employees are encouraged to include gym time in their working day everyone is
offered a corporate membership at a local gym. If they go at lunch time, they get
a 90 minute lunch break instead of the customary hour. Often a whole group of
colleagues will go together.
15
12
100% productive (%)

90-99% productive (%)
24
19

Less then 70% productive (%)
31
When they get back, you can really tell the difference. When theyre making their
calls theyre energised, which increases their productivity. It shows in their stats
and KPIs we track. You can clearly see the productivity levels go up after lunch.
Trust is important in order to make this work. Knowing the impact that exercise
has on their people, managers trust them to use it to their advantage. They
encourage employees to understand what works best for them and empower
them to do what helps them perform at their best. This mentality has a great
impact on internal relationships: it makes for open communication and a nonhierarchical structure.
Katy: Im a part-time personal trainer and the managing director is a regular
attendee in my classes. In spin class Im the boss, but back at work its back to
business.
100% productive (%)

For Loopdynamic the current formula of offering access to the gym and health,
wellbeing and nutritional advice works. Absence levels are low and energy levels
are high. Thats exactly what you need in this business.

Less then 70% productive (%)
31
Figure 8: Self-reported productivity
Over the last three months, roughly how
productive have you been?
15
CASE STUDY
3. M
ANAGEMENT STYLES, LINE
MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES
AND ENGAGEMENT
EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT IS KEY

Diane Foster HR Director, Flamingo
Understanding the impact of

different management styles will
enable managers to identify effective
approaches for engaging with their
direct reports, benefiting individual
wellbeing and organisational
performance.
Evolving Management Styles

Key Findings: Managers largely
look favourably at their line
managers management styles.
Accessibility, empowerment and
trust are identified as the prevalent
features. But this is not universal.
Where organisations are growing,
managers tend to be accessible,
empowering and trusting. Declining
firms are relatively more likely to
have secretive, risk-averse and
authoritarian managers.
Examining the differences in reported
management styles by organisational
context produces some encouraging
findings (Table 3). Firstly, an accessible
style of management was most
prevalent in all organisations regardless
of economic health. This is reassuring
when we consider that in 2012,
managers felt the prevailing styles of
management in their organisations
were most commonly command
and control styles, authoritarian and
bureaucratic.4
Accessible
47
Trusting
38
Empowering
34
Reactive
17
Consensual
16
Risk-averse
16
Bureaucratic
11
Suspicious
11
Paternalistic
7
5%
10%
The reason Flamingo keeps growing and winning awards is

not only down to the work that they do but also the caring
and nurturing culture that they do it in.
The culture and environment are also very flexible. There are
many flexible working arrangements in place, and Flamingo
won a Mumsnet Gold Award in 2014 after the company culture
was rated by an external survey as 97% supportive of those
with families. As an example of how this policy operates in
practice, one of the Directors recently enjoyed seven months
extended paternity leave.
Entrepreneurial
The programme is run by their colleagues from all parts of the

business. Another is the Global Connect Initiative, which brings
employees from across all offices together to tackle tasks as
a team and learn new techniques and approaches. And then
theres the upcoming Leadership School, bringing current and
future leaders from across Flamingo offices together for four
days in London in April 2016.
As Diane says: Our annual Expo event brings everyone

together from all levels in the company to an overseas location
to develop team spirit, share ideas and provide a common
sense of purpose, community and inspiration.
12
Innovative
Flamingo is a multiple award-winning1 global insight and

strategy consultancy. It was founded in 1997 and now has
around 300 employees spread over seven offices around the
world. The company is growing consistently both financially
and in people terms.
From the very beginning, when founders Maggie Collier and

Kirsty Fuller (now co-CEOs) started the company, Flamingo
has been a non-political, non-prescriptive and collaborative
company. The power is not in one place; the culture is very
inclusive.
20
Secretive
Developing managers and leaders
Empowerment
28
Authoritarian
Our commitment has always been to empower talent and

to keep our employees inspired, engaged and challenged.
This attitude has everything to do with ensuring employees
are healthy and happy. One of our main strategies is to give
employees a rich and rewarding work life, and we firmly
believe that both personal and professional development
are the way to do that.
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Figure 9: Prevalence of line management styles
Positive management styles

were more prevalent in growing
organisations. Whilst such styles were
also commonplace in even the rapidly
declining organisations, this may be
outweighed by the presence of more
negative styles. The prominence of
a secretive management style may
explain the distinct lack of trust in senior
management in these organisations
only 12% of managers in rapidly

declining organisations agreed that
they had trust and confidence in senior
management. This style is characterised
by a lack of open communication
and may also influence beliefs about
how well change is managed, further
highlighting the impact of ineffective
management.
The result is a culture of empowerment where people enjoy

the autonomy and ownership of work and are being given free
rein to share ideas and use their creativity to its full potential.
The focus is very much on sharing and connecting with
colleagues around the world and with the world itself.
Culture is part of our DNA. Im very proud of our company
spirit, progressiveness and entrepreneurialism, says Diane.
he questions differed in terminology: How would you describe the prevailing management style in your organisation? in 2012 and How would you describe
T
the management style of your line manager? in 2015. This means the results are not directly comparable. People may be more generous in rating their own
line managers compared to their organisations in general, because of the closer personal connection.
16
Training and development initiatives involve people in different

teams and across different levels, ensuring constant
collaboration and learning opportunities. Again, this is seen
as a very important way of keeping employees inspired and
engaged.
Health and wellbeing are fully integrated
Theres no such thing as health and wellbeing training,
because it is an integrated part of everyones job description.
By giving something a specific name theres the risk it
becomes separated from everything else, or just an HR thing.
It isnt. Taking care of yourself and others, and talking about
things that are bothering you, should be part of everyday
working life. Employees know they can speak up at any time
to anyone in the organisation.
HR have overarching strategies and procedures in place as
any other big company does, but its the individuals and the
teams that make them work. Often potential issues can be
solved without HR ever being involved. Giving employees
autonomy in this area too is very empowering and makes
HRs job easier too.
Flamingo is proud of how they do things and confident its
the only way to run a successful business: People are how
we deliver business. If you train, nurture and take good care of
them they become the business talent of the future and help
build our culture both within and outside the company.
She believes that Flamingos culture has a very positive impact

on how its employees feel and behave and how productive,
happy and satisfied they are in their jobs. It is seen as one of
the most important factors contributing to employee health
and wellbeing.
Sunday Times Training and Development Awards: 2014, 2013, 2012

MRS Awards Best Agency: 2015, 2014, 2009, 2006, 2003
MRS Awards Best Place to Work: 2014, 2012 (2013 Highly Commended)
Mumsnet Family Friendly Gold Award: 2014
Part of Flamingos inquisitive culture is to offer plenty of

opportunities for training and development, which includes
management and leadership training. One example is the
Training and Inspiration programme, which is focused on junior
staff members and consists of 20 sessions on core skills.
Health and wellbeing isnt just an HR thing.

Taking care of yourself and others should be
part of everyday working life.
17
Although we cant say if one causes

the other, it is interesting to consider
the association between more
constructive styles of management
and increases in job satisfaction,
engagement and confidence in senior
management.
Perceptions of Line
Managers
Key Findings: Managers were
more positive about the mutual
trust between employees and
line managers. Discontent was
most apparent in relation to talent
development activities. Managers
felt their personal development
was not taken seriously (28%)
and a third reported feelings that
their manager had not received
appropriate training.
In previous reports the impact of
line manager relationships on job
satisfaction has been highlighted.
The quality of line management
relationships in particular is identified
as having a key influence on job
satisfaction so we expanded the
survey questions on the line manager
relationship.
Perceptions of line managers
were generally positive with small
improvements (Figure 10). Strikingly,
nearly two thirds of managers (62%)
reported that their line management
relationship had a positive impact on
their wellbeing.
With some concerns existing over the
level of trust in senior management, a
sense of mutual trust and confidence
was much more apparent between
respondents and their line managers.
Two thirds of managers agreed
that their organisations approach
to management and leadership
development consisted of training for
new line managers (66%) and support
for ongoing development (69%).
However, there was discontent with
the provision of talent management
and development activities: 28%
of managers do not think their
line manager takes their personal
development seriously and 36% do
not receive regular feedback. Although
Declining
Rapidly
Declining
Stable
Growing
Growing
Growing
Rapidly
Accessible
37
41
48
52
50
Trusting
25
35
38
42
44
Empowering
20
30
31
41
46
Reactive
27
31
29
22
33
Authoritarian
29
22
20
18
18
Secretive
38
20
15
16
Risk-averse
27
18
17
13
10
Consensual
13
15
17
17
12
Bureaucratic
19
15
14
Suspicious
17
14
10
Innovative
11
14
13
Paternalistic
12
Entrepreneurial
18
Merger/acquisition
19
15
16
23
23
Offshoring
14
12
None of these
Table 3: Prevalence of management style by growing/declining organisations

Strongly disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
I believe my line manager has

trust and confidence in me
3 7
12
43
36
My line manager treats

me with dignity and respect
3 7
12
41
36
My line manager
listens to my ideas
3 8
12
42
13
40
34
My line manager involves me

in decisions that affect me
I have trust and confidence

in my line manager
14
15
I could talk to my line manager

about issues such as stress
11
16
13
34
25
16
33
22
Overall, I think my line manager

is managing my work group well
11
My line manager makes clear how our organisational

priorities translate to my everyday work
I believe my line manager has had

appropriate management training
13
My line manager takes my

personal development seriously
11
My line manager gives me regular

feedback about my performance
18
17
18
18
36
22
18
25
26
33
29
19
23
Key Findings: More open,

empowering management styles
are connected to lower levels of
stress, higher job satisfaction
and greater personal productivity
than more command and control
styles. The worst management
styles generate up to four times
more stress than the best. The
best management styles drive job
satisfaction levels up to 2.5 times
higher.
We also reviewed the impact of
different management styles on stress,
job satisfaction and productivity.
We found that those who reported
their managers as having a positive
management style also reported
more positive outcomes such as less
stress, higher job satisfaction and
higher productivity. Figure 11 shows
that managers reported experiencing
higher levels of stress when their line
managers demonstrated more negative
management styles characterised by,
for example, suspicion (70%) versus
trust (41%).
Not at all
Trusting
Empowering
29
Consensual
Similarly, higher productivity was

reported by those who identified their
line managers as having positive rather
than negative management styles
(Figure 13).
11
17
24
25
18
30
32
18
14
26
Accessible
28
33
10
29
36
28
36
32
25
20
Reactive
17
20
14
21
Authoritarian
12
23
12
Secretive
Strongly disagree
Trusting
42
25
Agree
56
28
12
54
25
Consensual
2 10
13
Risk-averse
24
16
19
20
26
19
Bureaucratic
24
19
34
38
10
Disagree
59
16
48
20
18
Agree
Strongly agree
24
39
12
17
16
31
32
19
29
32
18
33
26
Paternalistic
20
Authoritarian
21
Bureaucratic
26
Risk-averse
Secretive
15
24
39
21
31
27
24
19
35
14
13
10
11
24
12
18
11
17
12
15
11
21
29
13
10
21
27
14
23
31
10
10
26
31
12
30
26
Figure 12: Self-reported

Job Satisfaction by
Management Style
30
18
34
Trusting
Reactive
42
31
10
40
30
Entrepreneurial
40
17
12
15
48
Accessible
20
59
Empowering
10
25
56
19
Authoritarian
Secretive
32
2 6
13
Paternalistic
53
2 9
18
Strongly agree
2 7

experience of stress by
management style.
28
40
Accessible
Strongly disagree
23
14 10
Empowering
20
41
Entrepreneurial
13
45
23
Innovative
Suspicious
19
51
18
12
Disagree
17
38
Bureaucratic
Suspicious
10
38
26
15
14
34
25
Paternalistic
27
31
Risk-averse
Consensual
a renewed focus on appropriate

initiatives to equip managers with the
skills needed to perform effectively,
particularly considering the impact
of poor management style on
productivity.
33
27
Entrepreneurial
Often
28
29
Reactive
Managers with positive line managers

report higher job satisfaction than those
with negative line managers (Figure
12). An innovative management style
was found to be the strongest driver
of engagement, with a suspicious style
most likely to reduce it.
Sometimes
31
Innovative
Suspicious
18
Rarely
Innovative
Figure 10: Perceptions of line managers
more managers agreed than disagreed

in both cases, the disagreement
from almost a third of the workforce
in relation to each area suggests
there is still room for improvement.
Organisations may benefit from
The Personal Impact of

Management Style

productivity by
management style
19
Management Style and

Engagement Levels
Entrepreneurial
As in 2012, we developed an
engagement index based on five
items within the questionnaire. The
engagement index was utilised to
explore the impact of management
styles on levels of employee
engagement.5 Further highlighting
the impact of managerial styles on
employee outcomes, Figure 14 shows
the link between positive styles of
management (e.g. empowering)
and higher levels of employee
engagement. Likewise, lower
engagement is associated with more
negative managerial styles. Given that
engagement may be a key factor in
motivating employees to go the extra
mile at work, these findings reinforce
the importance of management style.
Organisations should consider how
to create more positive management
styles via training and development
initiatives and support their managers
to adapt these styles as required. They
should also recognise that some styles
may be more appropriate in particular
organisational contexts (e.g. the need
for innovative management during
rapid growth).
Empowering
Trusting
Accessible
Consensual
Reactive
Risk-averse
Paternalistic
Authoritarian
Bureaucratic
Secretive
Suspicious
-4.00
-3.00
This has powerful implications. If

employees are more engaged by their
sense of enrichment at work, gained
through role autonomy and trusting
colleague/line manager relationships,
this has clear consequences for
organisations reward and recognition
policies and for how they manage.
-2.00
-1.00
-0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
Figure 14: Managerial styles and levels of engagement
Whats the main driver of employee

engagement?
Analysis of the results makes clear
that intrinsic factors (e.g. sense of
achievement, feelings of belonging to a
team) are more critical than extrinsic
ones (e.g. reward) see Table 4.
4. M
ANAGERS WORKING
HOURS IN A DIGITAL ERA
Innovative
Engagement Drivers
1
The sense of achievement

you get from your job
Engagement Inhibitors
1
Your ability to decide how

to get jobs done yourself
Your sense of feeling

part of a team

Your relationship
with your line manager
The amount of training

you have received

Your sense of feeling

part of a team
Your prospects for career

enhancement
Your relationship
with your line manager
Table 4: Top five drivers and inhibitors of engagement
A good work-life balance and

sufficient time for non-work activities
are important to ensure people are
able to recover from the demands
of work. Having little time to renew
energy is associated with negative
outcomes, both at work (e.g. reduced
job satisfaction) and personally (e.g.
increased risk of burnout). We explored
changes in working hours and the
extent to which they leave managers
feeling overloaded. The following
section looks at managers working
hours and the impact of connectivity in
an increasingly digital era.
Key Findings: Managers
contracted working hours have
risen by one hour daily compared
to 2012, which is equivalent to
an additional 29 days extra each
year. Thats more than the typical
annual leave entitlement. Overall,
92% of managers work longer
than their contracted hours. This
pattern has resulted in a third of
managers feeling overloaded and
a perception that long working
hours are something they have
no choice about.
This years survey found comparable
results to previous years with regards
to working hours. The average number
of contracted hours was 38, an
increase of one hour from 2012, with
the most commonly reported actual
hours worked being 41-48 hours
60 hours or more
11
49 to 59 hours
23
41 to 48 hours
38
35 to 40 hours
22
29 to 34 hours
21 to 28 hours
Under 20 hours
10%
20%
More than 3 hours
10
3 hours
10
30%
40%
2 hours
50%
Figure 15: Summary

of actual hours
worked in 2015
25%
Figure 16: Summary

of excess hours
worked in 2015
20
1.5 hours
17
1 hour
21
30 minutes
15
None
5%
10%
15%
20%
(38%; see Figure 15). Unsurprisingly

then, 92% of managers reported
working over their contracted hours
(90% in 2012), with 77% saying this
was an hour or more in excess of their
contracted hours on an average day
(see Figure 16).
In Figure 14, scores are standardised (z-scores) and range from -4 to +3, with positive scores lying
above the population mean and negative scores below the population mean.
20
21
If a manager works just one extra hour

daily, this equates to 29 extra days per
year6, which is more than the typical
annual leave entitlement.
Table 5 shows that those at a higher
job level (e.g. Director) reported
working more hours in excess of their
contracted hours compared to those
at a junior level. In fact, the pattern
demonstrated is that increasing
management seniority is associated
with longer working hours.
Similarly to 2012, 42% of managers
report they have a lot to do but are not
overloaded compared to 40% in 2012
(Figure 17). However a third of managers
still report feeling overloaded by having
too much work. Only around a quarter of
managers feel they have the capacity to
do more work or that they have the right
amount of work to do. This means most
managers are working at maximum
capacity. This has implications for
organisations reliance on management
to drive forward improvement to sustain
recovery and growth.
As shown in Figure 18, only about half of
managers feel that they choose to work
additional hours, and the majority feel
that it is a necessity given their deadlines.
These findings are unsurprising given the
high proportion of managers reporting
that there has been a significant increase
in the volume and pace of work.
Where positive management
styles (e.g. accessible and trusting)
were reported, there were similar
proportions of managers not working
in excess of their contracted hours
and of those working more than
three hours extra. It is reassuring that
these styles are associated with an
avoidance of excessive hours and it
may be that the 54% of managers who
choose to work more feel empowered
and enthused to do so. Whilst this
offers a more encouraging explanation,
we should not forget the harmful
impact excess hours can have, even if
managers feel this is their choice.
Director
or above
Senior
Manager
Middle
Manager
Junior
Manager
None
11
30 minutes
17
31
1 hour
14
18
23
25
1.5 hours
12
21
19
11
2 hours
26
24
17
13
3 hours
14
11
10
More than 3 hours
21
13
Key Findings: 54% say that

working hours are resulting in
greater stress levels, although
thats slightly fewer than in 2012
(59%). Stress was more than
three times as common among
those working long hours: 20% of
those working over three hours
a day extra said they are often
stressed, compared to only 6% of
those working no additional hours.
However, 67% of managers say
that overall theyre satisfied with
their jobs, substantially more than
in 2012 (55%) or even 2007 (62%).
Table 5: Average excess hours worked per day by seniority level
I have a lot to do but

do not feel overloaded
A very negative effect
Somewhat negative effect
Your time for exercising
No effect
Quite a positive effect
20
45
Your stress levels
13
Your social life
10
Your psychological health
10
28
41
40
40
A very positive effect
62
37
7 2
43
61
42
7 2
Your physical health
41
44
62
Your relationship with your spouse/partner
42
43
7 2
36
49
7 2
45
13
Your relationship with your children
Your morale
34
42
I have too much work to

do and feel overloaded
I have the capacity
to do more work
17
I have about the right

amount of work to do
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Figure 17: Managers feelings about their working hours
It is necessary in order
to meet deadlines
63
I do it by choice
54
I have no choice because

of the volume of work
45
I have to keep up with work emails
36
It is the only time available to think
35
Job cuts in my organisation

have increased my volume of work
22
It is necessary to get ahead

in this organisation
15
I feel pressurised to do it because

I feel insecure in my job
13
I feel pressurised to do it
by my line manager
10%
20%
30%
40%
Figure 18: Reasons managers work beyond their contracted hours
Your productivity
As shown in Figure 19, we asked

managers about the effect of their
working hours.
33
Based on working 5 days/week, 8 hour days and annual leave comprised of 20 days holiday and 8 bank holidays.
22
The Impact of
Working Hours
50%
60%
70%
Your relationship with colleagues
25
37
1 16
61
Around half of managers reported a

negative impact on exercise, stress
levels, social life, psychological and
physical health. The negative effects
were generally either reduced or
similar to the 2012 findings. This may
be considered a reflection of positive
trends emerging elsewhere, however
it continues to present a consistent
message regarding the need for
managers to adopt a better work-life
balance.
Figure 19: The effects of working hours
There was no significant difference

between men and women in the
reported effect of working hours.
The only factor that did show a more
pronounced difference was managers
relationships with their children where
perhaps surprisingly 44% of male
managers reported negative effects
compared to 36% of female managers.
Table 6: Job satisfaction by average excess hours worked each day
As shown in Table 6, the majority

of managers who said they did not
work in excess of their contracted
hours agreed or strongly agreed
that there were satisfied with their job
(67%). However, the overall picture in
relation to job satisfaction may be more
complex: there are also high levels of
satisfaction among those who do work
over their contracted hours.
For instance, over half of those
managers who typically work 30
minutes or an hour more still agree
(53% and 52% respectively) that they
are satisfied with their job. This starts
Overall, I am satisfied
with my job
None
30
minutes
1 hour
1.5
hours
32
2 hours
21
3 hours
More than
3 hours
Strongly disagree
Disagree
13
16
11
16
18
14
12
Neither agree nor

disagree
16
11
15
14
13
17
19
Agree
38
53
52
50
48
43
42
Strongly agree
29
15
18
15
19
21
20
3 hours
More than
3 hours
Experience of stress
None
30
minutes
1 hour
1.5
hours
2 hours
Not at all
40
24
24
21
19
25
18
Rarely
27
31
27
24
27
22
27
Sometimes
27
34
38
39
41
39
35
Often
11
12
16
13
14
20
Table 7: Experience of stress by average excess hours worked each day
to decline slightly with an increase

in excess hours. The fact that 54%
of managers working in excess of
contracted hours by their own choice
and 42% reporting that they have a
lot to do but are not overloaded might
explain why job satisfaction is not lower.
With a clearer pattern emerging,
those working less overtime reported
less stress (Table 7). This may be
unsurprising when a large proportion
of managers feel their excess hours

are a function of necessity, but it does
reinforce the need for managers to find
ways of managing workload within their
contracted hours.
We also explored the impact of working
hours on productivity. Among managers
reporting the highest average working
hours per week (60 hours or more),
100% productivity was reported just as
often as productivity of less than 70%
23
CASE STUDY
How Technology Influences

Working Hours
BUILDING A CARING COMPANY

Evan Davidge Head of Reward, Arup
Employees put an awful lot of psychological and intellectual effort into the
success of their business, and a good business should be able to reciprocate
in kind. Thats what constitutes the modern-day psychological contract.
Arup is a global, employee-owned firm of designers, planners, engineers,
consultants and technical specialists with over 4,000 employees across
the UK.
A few examples of their impressive work include the Sydney Opera House
and the London Aquatics Centre. The company prides itself on making
a sustainable and positive difference in the world, which starts close
to home with making sure Arups employees are in the best position
possible, both mentally and physically, to do their job and enjoy doing it.
The first step
Arups health and wellbeing approach was triggered by the realisation that
large parts of its workforce were very hard-working and dedicated but at the
same time lacked understanding about the impact of their working life on their
health. There was a culture of excessive working and poor life balance.
Head of Reward Evan Davidge: We were spending a lot of money looking
after and caring for our people, but we had no clear objectives and a
disjointed approach. It wasnt sustainable.
A few straightforward calculations showed how having a sustainable and
integrated health and wellbeing strategy makes business sense. Not only
does it have an impact on the bottom line, it also improves engagement
and productivity, reduces risks and costs, targets presenteeism and
absenteeism and attracts and retains talent.
A new health and wellbeing approach
Arup wanted the approach to be holistic and get away from the disjointed
and fragmented approach that had been characteristic of how wellbeing
had been managed in the business until then. In the new Total Reward
proposition, employees quality of life sits alongside the quality of their
work environment, a strong focus on people and personal development,
and recognition for their work.
Arupians have an independence of spirit that is reflected in their work.
Our sustainable health and wellbeing strategy empowers them to harness
this spirit for the benefit of shaping a better world together. Health and
wellbeing is positioned not purely as an HR initiative, but as an integrated
part of the organisation, aligned to the business values of shaping a better
world and being a humane organisation.
The challenges: winning management buy-in
Of course, all change attracts opposition. First reactions from senior leaders
to the new health and wellbeing proposal were that it was a soft proposition,
which Evan and his group were immediately able to counter with tangible
results in terms of business productivity and commercial success. The rocksolid evidence helped senior managers become more committed.
It then became a case of communicating and educating both on a
rational and emotive level. Arup did comprehensive communication
campaigns around three key areas: psychological issues, cancer support
and musculoskeletal problems. The campaigns were designed with their
specific engineering audience in mind.
Everyone got access to an Employee Health Gateway so they could do a
self-risk-assessment and calculate their own Health Age, where employees
could compare their health age to their actual age by answering questions
(19% and 21% respectively). 100%

productivity was most common among
managers working 21 to 28 hours per
week. Self-reported productivity at
below 70% was most prevalent among
managers working 29 to 34 hours
per week. The relationship between
working hours and productivity is
not entirely straightforward and an
increased number of working hours
24
about their lifestyles. Evan: Our mission was to make our company 1,000
years younger.
Getting employees actively involved and aware of their own health, and
providing visible and immediate results, proved popular and successful.
In addition, a large number of seminars were held where Arup employees
were invited to talk about their experiences with, for example, cancer or
mental health problems.
Evan spent three months travelling the UK, inviting employees to do a
15-minute biometric test (calculating things like their BMI and cholesterol).
Employees who came up at risk were offered health coaching at the expense
of the company. It was a case of showing substantial commitment and
investment: were willing to put our money where our mouths are.
The role of line managers
The campaigns were a great way of getting people involved. They opened
up the culture and cascaded the message through the company, crucially
involving line managers. Implementing a wellbeing approach starts with line
managers. They need to embrace it. Without their support youre not going
to get the stimulus and leadership you need to get things done.
Arup now offers training to equip managers with the tools to deal with
employee issues that may arise. At the moment theres a recruitment drive
for health champions: people with a genuine enthusiasm for the wellbeing
of their colleagues who can network and share ideas. Theres also a plan
to train up mental first aiders, who will be equipped to signpost individuals
experiencing stress, anxiety or depression and help them get referred into
the psychological pathway.
Arup wanted to empower employees to take control and responsibility for
their own health and the company would provide the resources and the
support they needed to do that.
The results
Evan reports a tangible culture change, which he ascribes to increased
openness as well as individual empowerment and responsibility when it
comes to health and wellbeing. The cultural blind spot has largely gone,
because we put it out in the open and said: Look guys, its okay to have
issues you cant deal with on your own, its okay to ask for help.
Appropriately for a company full of engineers theres a strong focus is
on quantifying the measures and on collecting solid evidence. Arup has
developed a Wellness Dashboard, which shows both the state of the nation
across the company and provides number-based evidence for future action.
One of the measures showed that there is an 18% reduction in health
and wellbeing costs. Mental healthcare claims have gone up by 50% in
the past 18 months, but the cost per claim has gone down by 75%. And
utilisation of the Employee Assistance Programme, which offers cognitive
behaviour therapy, has gone up from 4% to 17% over the past 18 months.
It shows that weve increased awareness and people have cottoned on
that early treatment or referral is absolutely essential. Its the clich of
prevention is better than cure, and thats exactly what the figures show.
Whats more, Arups success is not only recognised within but also outside
the organisation. The companys growing collection of prizes now also
includes Personnel Todays 2015 Best Health and Wellbeing Award.
is not increasingly aligned with higher

productivity.
If longer working hours are not
synonymous with higher levels of
productivity, how can organisations
achieve a balance? Looking at the
data, there was a larger proportion of
managers working one hour extra per
day who reported productivity at levels
of 80 to 89% compared with those
working 1.5, 2 or 3 hours more per

day. Organisations could consider the
value of striving for a sufficient level of
productivity that is not reliant on
substantially longer hours, rather than
aiming for 100% productivity at the
expense of employee wellbeing.
Productivity may improve if wellbeing is
increased or if effective management
styles are employed to manage change.
Key Findings: 61% of managers

say that technology has made it
difficult to switch off from work.
Around one in five managers say
they now check their email all the
time outside of working hours; over
half (54%) check frequently. This is
particularly common among those
in senior management positions.
Whilst not perceived unfavourably
by all managers, constant
email accessibility and digital
connectivity mean longer working
hours for some.
A new survey area in 2015 examined
the impact of technology on managers
working lives. Respondents were
asked to indicate how often they check
their emails outside of normal working
hours (Figure 20).
When email checking was examined
by job level (Table 8), senior managers
were more likely to be checking emails
outside of working hours than their
junior counterparts.
This highlights a worrying finding:
senior managers are also those
most commonly working over their
contracted hours, and increased
digital connectivity is likely to facilitate
these excess working patterns. With
a combination of excessive hours and
email access away from the workplace
leaving little room for downtime,
the impact for wellbeing could be
significant.
We also asked managers about the
impact of technology on their working
hours and wellbeing (Figure 21).
Managers indicated that technology
can have a negative impact on their
work-life balance, with the majority
of managers (61%) reporting that
technology has made it difficult for them
to switch off from work. They also
commonly reported (52%) contacting
colleagues outside working hours.
In an organisational context, whilst
over half of managers (52%) did not
feel they were expected to be online
all of the time, just under a third (29%)
indicated that they felt this was the
case. Similar proportions of managers
agreed (39%) and disagreed (32%) that
All the time
21
Regularly
33
Occasionally
25
Only in emergencies
Never
14
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Figure 20: Frequency of checking emails outside normal working hours
Director
or above
Senior
Manager
Middle
Manager
Junior
Manager
Never
17
30
Only in emergencies
10
Occasionally
15
22
30
28
Regularly
46
41
28
21
All the time
33
26
16
13
Table 8: Frequency of checking emails outside normal working hours by seniority

Strongly disagree
Disagree
Technology has made it difficult

to switch off from work
Agree
My organisation should give employees

more control over their working hours
Technology has enabled me to have

more control over my working hours
10
My organisation should restrict

out-of-hours email access
21
Strongly agree
13
17
34
32
18
26
38
23
33
28
28
14
11
25
14
I never contact my
colleagues out of hours
10
42
15
23
10
Im expected to be
online all the time
15
37
20
20
Figure 21: Influence of technology on working hours
their organisation should restrict out-ofhours email access, which may reflect
the balanced view about the extent
to which technology facilitates control
and perceived flexibility over working
hours. Those who agreed, however,
included 43% of those who admit they
access email all the time. The fact that
the majority of managers are contacting
colleagues outside working hours

suggests change is not just a function of
organisational processes (e.g. restricted
access) but also of people. Role
modelling behaviours that demonstrate
a positive approach to dealing with the
digital world will be equally important
for achieving behavioural change that
ensures limited impact on wellbeing.
25
Technology might not be the cause of

pressure to working beyond contracted
hours, but it certainly facilitates longer
hours. A balanced view about the value
of technology and the need to restrict
access may be reflective of the digital
culture, in which working and nonworking lives are becoming entangled.
Organisations need to balance the
benefits and drawbacks of a digital
era, enabling employees to use the
flexibility that remote access allows,
whilst not losing sight of the impact on
working hours and wellbeing.
100%
productive
90-99%
productive
80-89%
productive
70-79%
productive
Less than
70%
productive
Never
20
29
20
21
Only in emergencies
11
28
30
20
11
Occasionally
11
24
32
18
14
Regularly
11
26
32
18
13
All the time
14
22
28
19
17
Table 9: Levels of productivity by frequency of checking emails

Interestingly, there was a general trend

for those who reported checking
their emails more frequently outside
of working hours to feel more
productive than those who checked
less frequently (Table 9). The least
productive managers are accessing
emails never and all the time to a
similar degree.
This trend could be more associated
with managers sense of control rather
than productivity per se. Perhaps
managers who check emails outside
their working hours most frequently
feel more in control of their workload
(or at least, their inboxes) and therefore
feel more productive. If so then, in
practical terms, managers should be
seeking to identify coping strategies.
For example, effective scheduling and
prioritisation of responsibilities are likely
to enhance feelings of control. Regular
short breaks may result in more, rather
than less, productivity as individuals
feel recharged and better able to
manage the tasks at hand.
The theory that a sense of control is
paramount is reinforced by Figure 23
which shows that the more frequently
managers check emails outside of
working hours, the more likely they are
to disagree that organisations should
restrict out-of-hours access. However,
it is notable that 43% of those who
check all the time also agree with
this perhaps a need for stronger
boundaries?
26
Strongly disagree
Disagree
All the time

Regularly
Occasionally
Only in emergencies
Never
26
32
28
21
26
34
24
3 9
Agree
Strongly agree
22
Difficulty Switching Off in

the Digital World
Key Findings: 61% of managers
say that technology has made it
difficult to switch off from work.
Many of them experience lower
productivity and job satisfaction
and more stress.
11
23
29
34
Figure 22: Agreement with restricted email access by

frequency of email checking out-of-hours
10
33
33
21
Disagree
100%
90-99%
80-89%
With technology at our fingertips it is

perhaps not unusual for managers to
remain connected to work, for example
catching up on emails and scheduling
during the daily commute. However
this ability to remain connected rather
than switch off, even when away from
the work environment, may impact
managers wellbeing and performance,
particularly where this behaviour is
driven by a need to feel on top of
things at work.
We considered the impact in relation
to three outcomes: productivity, job
satisfaction and the experience of
stress.
21
24
Strongly disagree
Those who feel that technology

makes it harder to switch off tended
to experience lower productivity and
job satisfaction and more stress.
This may be linked to a feeling of
control or reliance on technology to
manage workload. For example, are
managers who are more satisfied and
unaffected by technology in terms
of switching off also those that do
not perceive technology as a key
factor in controlling or managing their
workload?
70-79%
Less than 70%
Agree
23
14
24
13
38
21
12
40
17
14
40
16
11
34
Strongly agree
24
18
36
21
26
32
Figure 23: Productivity by agreement with technology has

made it hard for me to switch off from work
Over a third of managers (34%)

who rated their productivity at less
than 70% agreed that technology
makes it hard for them to switch off.
In contrast, only 22% of managers
who rated their productivity as 100%
perceived technology in the same
manner. This was similar for managers
with the highest reported levels of
job satisfaction. For those managers
experiencing stress often, a larger
proportion (23%) reported that
technology had an impact on their
ability to switch off than those who did
not feel this way (8%).
Technology may be facilitating a
trend for excessive working and
an increasing tendency to spend
time on work, particularly emails,
outside of normal contracted hours.
The negatives should be a reason
for employers to look the impact of
technology. Organisations should
look to understand how employees
communicate and whether this can be
adapted to reduce the consequences
of an always on culture amongst
managers.
27
5. M
OTIVATION AND WELLBEING
Wellbeing at Work
Key Findings: Like in 2012, the
majority of managers report some
negative impact on their wellbeing
in the previous three months,
with sleep loss topping the list.
They also agree that workload
can have an adverse effect on
wellbeing. Managers believe that
both organisations and they as
individuals bear the responsibility
of making sure employees are
healthy and happy in their jobs.
Key Findings: Motivation remains

largely unchanged since 2012
despite more positive trends
observed elsewhere. Motivation
remains higher in the private
sector and in organisations
experiencing growth.
As in other reports, we asked
managers to report how motivated
they felt on a typical Monday morning
(Figure 24).
Motivation remains at a similar level
to 2012, with 61% feeling motivated
or highly motivated. Especially given
the finding that job satisfaction has
increased overall, it is important to
note there was an increase in the
percentage of managers feeling
not very motivated or not motivated
at all (28%, up from 24% in 2012).
Motivation still appears to be a
challenge for many managers.
Unsurprisingly, managers working
in organisations experiencing the
highest levels of growth reported
feeling the most motivated (82%)
compared with those managers in
rapidly declining organisations who
reported feeling more demotivated
(67%). Whilst not unexpected, it is
important to recognise the impact
of such demotivation on employee
wellbeing. Organisations in tough
environments should still monitor
the health and wellbeing of their
workforce, particularly if further decline
is anticipated.
28
2015
2012
13
14
Highly motivated
48
47
Motivated
17
16
7
8
10%
20%
Insomnia / sleep loss 2015

2012
Muscular tension / aches and pains 2015
2012
Stress 2015
30%
40%
50%
Figure 24: Self-reported motivation How motivated do you

feel on a Monday morning?
Managers were asked to rate the

extent to which a number of factors
influence their wellbeing (Figure 26).
There were improvements across
several, although there was a slightly
more negative perception about the
impact of workload.
Sometimes
Often
23
22
20
18
37
37
20
23
23
22
20
22
38
38
19
19
27
37
38
15
37
16
13
33
14
37
11
Headaches 2015
2012
30
28
26
27
32
33
11
12
Having difficulty concentrating 2015

2012
28
29
29
26
35
35
9
10
Constant irritability 2015

2012
39
37
26
27
28
28
7
9
Avoiding contact with other people 2015

2012
43
42
23
24
26
25
7
8
Loss of sense of humour 2015

2012
36
37
30
28
41
42
27
27
Mood swings 2015

2012
Unable to listen to other people 2015
2012
46
44
Depression 2015
Panic or anxiety attacks 2015
2012
28
30
67
66
5
5
27
24
29
32
61
6
7
22
22
19
15
18
19
12
12
3
3
8
3
3
Figure 25: 2012/2015 comparison of health and wellbeing

outcomes in previous three months
*Items introduced in the 2015 survey, comparable 2012 data
is unavailable; 2012 data for other items is shown in lighter shading.
A somewhat negative effect
No effect
Quite a positive effect

Your sense of feeling part of a team
Your relationship with your line manager
The amount of praise and recognition

you get from your line manager
11
35
11
35
12
13
The amount of training you have received
The developmental feedback you

receive from your line manager
The level of resources available to

you to do your job
Your prospects for career enhancement
12
18
31
32
13
18
35
26
12
37
11
28
33
27
20
36
27
20
30
14
20
12
37
29
17
16
39
35
14
11
A very positive effect
16
34
Your level of remuneration/reward
Your workload
3 12
The "achievability" of your objectives
Managers were also asked about the

perceptions of their organisations
wellbeing responsibilities (Figure
27). Over half of managers felt that
their organisations provided enough
support for their employees wellbeing
and the majority (around 90%) also
recognised wellbeing as something
they were responsible for in respect of
their own teams.
Rarely
23
Lack of appetite or over-eating 2015

2012
A very negative effect
21
Not very motivated

Not motivated at all
Factors Perceived to Influence

Wellbeing
13
Neither
We asked managers about the extent

to which they had experienced health
issues in the previous three months
(Figure 25). The results were largely
comparable to 2012. 57% reported
experienced insomnia or sleep loss
often or sometimes in the previous
three months, or muscular problems.
Half reported experiencing stress
something which was more commonly
experienced in women (18%) than men
(10%).
Not at all
20
31
14
26
29
26
23
24
23
15
8
8
Figure 26: Factors influencing wellbeing, in ascending order of negative outcomes
Strongly disagree
Disagree
As a manager, I see my employees

wellbeing as my responsibility
11 8
Employees are treated sympathetically by

work colleagues if they take sick leave
1 14
Employees are treated sympathetically

by managers if they take sick leave
I would benefit from more training on how
to manage employees wellbeing
My organisation does not provide enough
support for its employees wellbeing*
15
15
20
Agree
Strongly agree
58
27
33
52
26
46
30
45
24
40
11
Figure 27: Perceptions of organisational responsibility for wellbeing

*For this item strongly disagree should be considered as positive
and strongly agree as negative.
29
CASE STUDY
The Impact on Public

Sector Managers
Key Findings: The public sector
continues to face significant
organisational challenges, which
is reflected in the impact upon
managers. Examples are lower
motivation, productivity and job
satisfaction. However, theres been
a slight upward trend since 2012,
which is encouraging in a sector
recovering more slowly from the
effects of the financial crisis.
The results of this survey show
significant challenges continue to face
the public sector. At an organisational
level, decline is more common than in
other sectors and cost reduction is the
main focus of organisational change
activity. So how has the behaviour and
wellbeing of managers in this sector
been affected?
Overall we found that senior
management is still viewed in a less
favourable light than in the private
sector. However, there were some
small improvements compared to
2012, and in fact trust and confidence
in senior managers was most improved
in the public sector (42% in 2015 up
from 30% in 2012).
Motivation was lowest amongst public
sector workers (54%) when compared
with the private (63%) and charity/
not-for-profit (68%) sectors; over a
third of public sector managers feel
demotivated. Despite this there was
only a 5% difference between public
and private sector managers regarding
whether they felt motivated to do their
best for their organisation. Thats
encouraging given the resilience likely
to have been required of many in the
public sector in recent years.
Given the motivation gap, it is not
surprising to note that it was more
common for public sector managers
to report working at less than 70%
productivity. Figure 28 shows a
breakdown of the self-reported
productivity over the last three months
reported by managers in the four
organisational sectors.
In the current public sector climate, it is
particularly important for organisations
to consider how change activity can
be managed to maximise levels of
motivation and productivity.
30
Charity/Not-for-profit
Public Sector
Private Sector
Other
50%
HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN
TIMES OF GREAT CHANGE
42
John Rawling Deputy Director of Human Resources and

Organisational Development at Sunderland City Council
40%
33
Our workforce has halved and the organisation faces a

great many challenges, yet we are still delivering highquality, well-rated front line services. Organisations dont
change the people do.
32
30%
25
22 22
29
20%
22
31
19
17
16
10%
15
13
13
11 12
10
0%
100%
productive
90=99%
productive
80-89%
productive
70-79%
productive
Figure 28: Productivity levels by organisational sector / status
Less than 70%

productive
Investing in the health and wellbeing of our workforce leads

to happy and motivated employees without whom the
organisation would not have survived such drastic change.
Sunderland City Council (SCC) is a large local authority
with 4,000 staff in North East England. It provides and
commissions a full range of public services for the
communities of Sunderland.
Recent reductions in government funding have made the
need to manage change successfully SCCs primary driver.
The workforce has been halved and there has been a
radical shift in ways of working. Driving and adapting to
these changes are key requirements of our employees and
leaders, says John.
It all starts at the top
and health and diet information. But SCCs most innovative way
to address health and wellbeing, and the one they are most
proud of, is their coaching service.
Coaching
Over the past seven years SCC have developed a coaching
service based on the comprehensive use of psychometric tools.
The team delivers mindfulness training and meditation as well as
leadership and performance, team and individual coaching. The
service proved particularly useful in challenging times: sessions
in culture change and resilience are now part of team coaching
when new teams are brought together or morale has dipped
due to changes in teams or structures.
Measuring the impact on
the organisation
SCC uses various metrics to track if their commitment to
health and wellbeing is paying off. On a macro level there are,
for example, staff attendance statistics and the demand for
coaching and counselling services.
SCCs leadership recognises that all change is challenging

and that employees need to be supported throughout
these often long and difficult processes. John: Employee
engagement and productivity is dependent upon employee
wellbeing which in turn is hugely influenced by employees
experience of management and leadership, and the trust
relationships they have with each other.
On a micro level there is the progress made by individuals

when it comes to, for example, adapting to and coping
with change and challenge. Individual and team wellbeing
are measured by the Distance Travelled coaching tool a
self-rating tool that measures how an individual feels at the
beginning and end of a number of coaching sessions.
Using that as a starting point, SCC has run the Sunderland

Leadership Programme for the past eight years. It operates
at strategic, operational and first-line management levels
and uses a psychometric tool to measure leadership styles.
Participants are then given in-depth feedback by qualified
psychologists so they can improve their management and
leadership skills and be better able to support their teams.
And whilst the coaching service is confidential, the number

of employees per service area receiving coaching is
recorded. This allows the team to monitor hot spots: if a high
percentage of the service area has a need for coaching, the
team looks into potential reasons. If, for example, anxiety is a
recurring theme the staff in that particular service area will be
offered team coaching or mindfulness training.
A proactive health and wellbeing approach
Feedback from managers who received coaching is

unanimous: coaching is highly valued and has helped many
members of staff through difficult periods of significant
change. Demand is high even external organisations are
requesting to buy the service.
SCC has a range of health and wellbeing measures in place.

A healthy work/life balance is encouraged across all levels of
the organisation and includes a wide variety of flexible working
options, career breaks and condensed working hours.
In 2010 the council completely overhauled its approach to
recruitment and deployment so that employees are placed in
roles that closely match their personal strengths and personality,
again using psychometric tools. This applies to all staff from
junior to senior.
We want to eliminate the square peg/round hole syndrome
which can so damage employee wellbeing, engagement and
productivity.
To promote both the physical and mental wellbeing services
the council organised Wellness Week, which included coaching
taster sessions, hypnotherapy, Reiki, Yoga, Indian Head
Massage, Breast Cancer Awareness sessions, free gym passes
A cultural shift
The use of coaching and psychometrics to support employee
development, performance and wellbeing has gradually
become normalised across Sunderland City Council. The
stigma of asking for help has faded. It started with the
senior managers, which had a ripple effect throughout the
organisation and helped dispel the myth that coaching is for
those with problems. It is now recognised that coaching helps
you to get you where you want to be.
John: The attitude to health and wellbeing has shifted from a
problem for HR to a much more sophisticated understanding of
the two-way inter-relationship between wellbeing and work.
31
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Empower your people,
promote productivity
The most powerful drivers of job
satisfaction are intrinsic to the job,
flowing from the sense of satisfaction
it offers, the quality of team and line
manager relationships and the
opportunities for development.
Managers have a key role to play.
They need to be empowered and in
turn empower their teams to perform.
Give autonomy make managers

masters of their destiny. Employees
should have the freedom, trust and
autonomy to make their own decisions
about how they work. Show trust in
their judgement. Hold people
accountable for the outcomes of their
work, but do not be prescriptive about
how they work.
Job design ensure jobs and the
processes behind them are structured
to enable role autonomy and also to
give people opportunities to be part of
a team, another key driver of
satisfaction.
Tailor reward and recognition
strategies recognise values-based
behaviour and reward it accordingly.
Recognise what people have done to
achieve results. If managers are
working the equivalent of a typical
annual leave entitlement in excess
hours, is an extra day of holiday truly
going to be perceived as an incentive?
Recognise employees value a
sense of achievement is fundamental
to job satisfaction and engagement, so
design recognition strategies to
enhance employees sense of value.
Telefonicas recognition scheme is
based on a mobile app, which has
allowed colleagues to recognise
one another across the Telefonica
network. It has achieved increased
workforce motivation and
satisfaction as well as improved
peer-to-peer relationships.
Support personal and professional

development provide employees
with clarity about how they can
progress their careers and support
their development, aligning with
business needs.
Encourage innovation managers
have a responsibility to create
environments in which innovation is
encouraged not stifled. Invite
employees to freely share ideas for
using their time more productively and
test possibilities quickly.
Googles famous 20% projects
allow engineers to spend time on
projects that interest them to
stimulate thinking. The same
dedication may not be realistic in all
businesses but the principle of
dedicated time to innovate could be
beneficial. Try dedicating the last 10
minutes of monthly meetings to an
open discussion of new ideas,
insights and suggestions.
Encourage regular walkabouts to
stimulate conversations with
colleagues on other teams or in
other areas of the business.
2. Switch off: avoid

digital presenteeism
3. D
evelop better line
managers
4. Improve change
management
Mobile technology can empower

employees and help organisations
become more agile, but organisations
need to avoid developing a culture of
digital presenteeism. Just because
people can be always on doesnt
mean they should be.
The role of line managers is key. How

they manage has a hugely powerful
impact on people throughout an
organisation. So, when it comes to
improving the quality of working life
and improving the management of
change you need to develop
managers with the capacity to
empower and engage.
Managers assessment of how senior

leaders are managing change is at a
low point. Too many managers say
change initiatives are failing to deliver
business benefits. With change
becoming the norm across nearly all
organisations, addressing this should
be a priority.
Give employees licence to switch

off. This may mean encouraging them
to turn mobile phones off after a
specific time. Leaders should set
expectations about working hours and
out-of-hours contact. Firms like JP
Morgan and Barclays have introduced
protected weekend policies to
discourage logging in and working
outside the working week
Review communication policies to
reduce unnecessary emails. Could
emails to colleagues on the same
office floor or in the same building be
banned in favour of phone calls and
face-to-face interactions?
The French IT services company
Atos banned internal emails back
in 2011 as part of a Zero email
policy; whilst boasting a reduction
in disruption and email overload by
60%, such change requires
adaptation in employee behaviours
and a wider cultural shift, as
recognised by Atos bosses.
Consider restricting remote
access to company servers. Some
companies go so far as to turn email
servers off out of working hours; one,
Daimler, has installed software to
automatically delete emails sent to
staff whilst they are on holiday.
Provide more regular feedback

ensure managers seek feedback
on how colleagues perceive their
management style and behaviour.
This shouldnt only be in the annual
appraisal: catch-ups with line
managers should be an opportunity
for feedback. Ask questions like as
how am I performing in relation to X?
or What could I do differently to be
more effective? Then jointly develop
personal development plans.
Understanding personal
management styles Provide
management and leadership
development that helps managers to
reflect on their own behaviours and the
impact of their actions. For example,
92% of Chartered Managers say that
becoming Chartered increased their
self awareness1. Provide opportunities
for feedback, formal and informal, for
example through mentoring schemes
or 360 feedback programmes.
Avoid the accidental manager
syndrome new managers need
appropriate development to learn how
to manage and lead. Selection for
promotion in management roles should
be based on management behaviour
and team leadership capabilities. Look
at how people get results, not just the
results themselves.
Create more opportunities to learn
identify opportunities for leadership
which are not tied to formal management
positions. Give people the chance to
practice skills and build confidence
through managing specific projects or
leading processes.
32
Culture change needs leadership

behaviour needs to be role-modelled
throughout the management hierarchy
from the top, with senior managers
committed to empowering and trusting
their people.
Improve communication be
transparent and create channels for
two-way communication. How effective
are your organisations upward and
downward communication
mechanisms? Ensure senior leaders
regularly receive news from the
frontline. Seek the views of employees
and involve them in shaping change.
Protect trust senior managers need
to reflect on how their actions might
affect employee trust and confidence.
Trust is fragile and precious once
damaged, its likely to be hard to
restore. How does your leadership
behaviour influence the perception of
projects in the organisation?
5. Improve wellbeing
For many managers, long hours and
the pressure of work continue to create
stress and squeeze out time for exercise
or their personal life. Improving health
and wellbeing may need dedicated
action across an organisation to change
the culture and reshape negative
attitudes. Management buy-in is vital.
Make the business case win
buy-in and support from managers by
showing the costs of poor health and
wellbeing and the benefits of
improvement.
Measure, prioritise and monitor
ensure you have the data on wellbeing
you need to assess what problems you
face and the areas that action should
focus. Monitor and report on progress.
Tackle taboos improving wellbeing
means tackling any stigma that may be
attached to discussion of health,
whether its stress and mental health
or physical illness. Start conversations
and provide information that makes it
easier to ask for help.
Engage managers managers can
have a direct impact on the motivation,
engagement and ultimately on the
wellbeing levels of the people they work
with. They need to be informed and
engaged on quality of working life and
wellbeing issues. Dont leave it to HR.
Define goals in terms of

behaviours define the changes you
want to achieve through change, but
look at these in terms of employee
attitudes and behaviour, not just
business performance outcomes.
Measure and monitor the impact
on people regularly monitor and
review the impact of change. Has it
delivered the anticipated business
benefits if not, what can be done?
How has it affected employees and
what opportunities are there for
improvement?
apping Management Excellence: Evaluating the impact of Chartered Manager, (2015), CMI. www.managers.org.uk/insights/research/
M
current-research/2015/may/mapping-management-excellence
33
APPENDIX A METHODOLOGY
AND SAMPLE OVERVIEW
APPENDIX B FULL PROFILE

OF RESPONDENTS 2015
The fieldwork for the study was

conducted in July 2015 and as in
previous studies the CMI membership
database was used as a sampling frame.
PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
Are you?
Male
As in 2007 and 2012, the 2015 survey

was distributed and completed entirely
online.
Consistent with previous reports and
based on some variation in respondents
based on their level in the organisation,
a decision was taken to weight the 2015
data so that it reflected the structure of
the 2007 survey. In addition, statistics in
the figures and tables presented in the
report are rounded to the nearest whole
number resulting in totals greater than
100% in some cases.
In the 2015 sample, 60% of respondents
were male and 40% female, reflecting an
increase in female respondents this year
(70% and 30% in 2012).
Similar to the 2012 age profile, the
majority of respondents in the 2015
sample were aged 40-59 years (66%).
Interestingly there was a small increase
in the number of respondents aged
under 39 years (26%; 15% in 2012)
whilst those aged over 60 were less
apparent in the sample (8%; 12% in
2012). 93% of respondents were full time
workers and only 7% part time.
Respondents were asked to indicate the
status of their organisation with the
following breakdown revealed for the
2015 sample: 13% worked for a not for
profit or charity organisation, 38%
worked in the public sector, 45% worked
in the private sector7 and for a small
proportion of respondents (4%) their
organisations status was categorised as

Other8 e.g. social enterprise. This profile
is similar to that of the 2012 sample,
whereby the majority of respondents
represented private sector organisations.
54% of respondents were based in
organisations employing over 1,000
people, with the fewest number of
respondents representing organisations
employing 1-10 people (6%); the
dispersion of respondents across the
different sizes of organisation is largely
comparable to 2012.
Minor changes to the 2015 survey
expanded the number of business sector
categories compared with 2012.
However the distribution of responses
still showed similar patterns to the 2012
results; there was a decrease in the
proportion of respondents describing
their sector as Other (down from 12%
in 2012 to 9% in 2015), which may be
explained by the inclusion of addition
categories such as Telecommunications
and Post and Creative/media
(representing 0.8% each in 2015).
The distribution of responses was mostly
similar across the regions between 2012
and 2015 with the majority of respondents
based in London (17%), the South East
(14%) and the South West (11%). There
were minor variations observed in regional
representation with the largest change
being a reduction in respondents based
in the South East (down from 18% in
2012) and small increases in respondents
based in other regions e.g. Yorkshire &
the Humber (up from 5% in 2012 to 7%
in 2015).
How old are you?
What is your job level?
Includes Private Limited Company, Listed Public Company, Family-Owned Business and Partnership.
Includes Social Enterprise, Cooperative, Mutual and respondents who selected Not Applicable.
34
69.7
Female
40.4
30.3
Under 30
6.4
2.4
30 - 39
20.0
12.0
40 - 49
34.4
35.1
50 - 59
31.6
39.0
60 - 65
5.6
8.9
Over 65
2.1
2.6
Director or above
12.5
19.2
Senior manager
31.8
30.8
Middle manager
38.7
37.4
Full time
Part time
Are you employed on a
How many employees

does your organisation
have?
What is the status of

your organisation?
16.9
92.6
12.7
91.6
7.4
8.4
Permanent contract
92.2
89.7
Temporary contract
3.2
4.5
Zero hour contract
0.2
n/a
Self-employed
4.0
5.4
Agency worker
0.4
0.3
1-10
5.7
7.0
11-50
8.6
8.1
51-250
14.3
12.9
251-500
8.9
501-1000
8.4
More than 1,000
54.1
Charity/not for profit
12.6
Social enterprise
0.5
Public sector
38.2
Listed public company
11.4
Private limited company
28.9
Partnership
1.9
Family-owned business
2.9
Co-operative
0.3
Mutual
1.5
PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
What industry do you
work in?
Agriculture, forestry and

fishing
Business services*
Several of the categories

have changed in their
Central government*
wording or description
since 2012 (indicated by *). Construction
Consultancy
2015 (%) 2012 (%)
0.5
2.1
5.8
5.7
17.1
3.8
4.1
4.5
N/A
Creative/media
0.8
N/A
Defence
6.8
N/A
Education
11.0
11.1
Electricity, gas and water*
2.3
2.6
Engineering
6.1
8.5
Finance, insurance*
5.3
5.4
Fire and rescue*
0.3
5.9
Health and social care
10.0
9.2
1.3
1.1
Hospitality, catering, leisure

and tourism*
Housing and real estate
2.7
N/A
IT*
2.6
4.5
Justice and security
0.7
n/a
1.1
N/A
7.6
Included
within
Central
Government
6.1
6.7
1.5
N/A
2.4
Included
within
Fire and
rescue
1.0
1.5
Legal and accounting

services
Local Government*
15.8
56.2
N/A
Manufacturing and
production*
Mining and extraction (incl.
oil and gas)
Police*
N/A
Sales/marketing/
advertising
Telecommunications and
post
Transport and logistics*
0.9
N/A
N/A
1.9
3.0
3.1
What is the status of

your organisation?
Charity/not for profit
12.6
9.7
Wholesale and retail*
1.5
1.3
Split into four main

groups (similar to 2012)
Public
38.2
41.9
Other
8.5
12.2
Private
45.0
48.4
N/A
In which region is your

principal place of work?
59.6
Junior manager
Do you work...?
2015 (%) 2012 (%)
Other
4.2
East of England
5.9
8.0
London
16.7
16.0
East Midlands
4.7
5.5
West Midlands
9.8
9.1
South East
13.5
17.5
South West
11.3
10.7
North East
3.7
2.5
North West
8.2
9.3
Yorkshire and The Humber
6.8
4.5
Northern Ireland
1.1
1.3
Scotland
8.2
7.2
Wales
3.7
2.4
Other
6.3
6.1
35
Chartered Management Institute (CMI)

CMI is the only chartered professional body in the
UK dedicated to promoting the highest standards in
management and leadership excellence.
With a member community of over 100,000, CMI has been
providing forward-thinking advice and support for more
than 60 years. We continue to give managers and leaders,
and the organisations they work in, the tools they need to
improve their performance and make an impact.
We are a UK awarding body for management and
leadership qualifications, and the only body that awards
Chartered Manager, the hallmark of any professional
manager.
Through in-depth research and policy surveys CMI
maintains its position as the premier authority of key
management and leadership issues.
Website: www.managers.org.uk/qualityofworkinglife
Twitter: @CMI_managers and use #QualityOfWorkingLife
LinkedIn: Chartered Management Institute Network
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bettermanagers
Copyright Chartered Management Institute

First published January 2016
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this report is available from
the British Library
ISBN 0-85946-494-6
5609 01/16
Chartered Management Institute

77 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6SR
Registered charity number 1091035
Incorporated by Royal Charter

Quality of Working Life - Full Report - January 2016

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Quality of Working Life - Full Report - January 2016

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

THE QUALITY OF

2. The impact of the changing context for organisations and managers

3. Management styles, line management challenges and engagement

4. Managers working hours in a digital era

5. Motivation and wellbeing

Conclusions and Recommendations

The long-hours culture familiar to

Good, skilled managers know that

The new normal: longer

hours identified as a major factor

Extra working hours cancel out

Long hours increase stress 54%

Its hard to switch off 61% of

Workload and health managers

Time to turn off? Overall, 39% of

Job satisfaction has improved

High connectivity, high stress

The questionnaire was thoroughly

Change risks undermining rising

Line managers have a critical role to

Change is the norm but is failing to

Managers need to drive

Personal productivity managers

A key driver for the survey in 2015 was

Figure 1: 2012/2015 comparison of reported organisational growth and decline

Following the decline in 2012, there

We also asked managers whether

Different priorities emerge between

When organisational change activity

Cost reduction programmes

Culture change programmes

Changed employees terms

Introduction of new products/

Different working patterns

Increased use of temporary

Table 1: Organisational change activity by organisational growth/decline

Cost reduction programmes

Culture change programmes

Changed employees terms

Different working patterns

Type of Organisational Change

Figure 2: Experience of organisational change in 2015

Key Findings: Many managers

Neither disagree or agree

Employee partcipation has increased

Flexibility has increased

Productivity has increased

Customer service has improved

Accountability has increased

Financial results have improved

Key skills and experience have been lost

Levels of absence have increased

Employee turnover has increased

The level of industrial action/strikes

Figure 3: Impact of organisational change on organisations

Worryingly, there was an increase

Attitudes towards senior management

Managers in 2015 are more favourable

Reflecting patterns emerging in 2012,

Although disappointing, the low trust

Key Findings: In 2015, perceptions

which are perceived to be increasing.

In other ways however, managers

Neither disagree or agree